{"_id":"668da0380b76658b4c233165","title":"{\"ops\":[{\"insert\":\"What is \\\"the sunnah\\\" and where is it derived from?\"}]}","question":"{\"ops\":[{\"insert\":\"What is the sunnah? Is it specifically only things that the Prophet ﷺ did? Could it also refer to things that he ﷺ said people should do, but that he ﷺ himself did not do?\\n\"}]}","answer":"{\"ops\":[{\"insert\":\"\\nThe word sunnah is an Arabic word that existed before Islam and meant \\\"way\\\". Islamic scholars later gave the term additional meanings including:\\n \\nThe hadiths of the Prophet (ﷺ)\"},{\"attributes\":{\"list\":\"bullet\"},\"insert\":\"\\n\"},{\"insert\":\"The sayings, acts, affirmations, and rejections of the Prophet (ﷺ)\"},{\"attributes\":{\"list\":\"bullet\"},\"insert\":\"\\n\"},{\"insert\":\"A recommended act, like smiling\"},{\"attributes\":{\"list\":\"bullet\"},\"insert\":\"\\n\"},{\"insert\":\" Because these other meanings were coined afterward by Muslim scholars, when the Prophet (ﷺ) used the word sunnah, it meant \\\"way\\\". \"},{\"attributes\":{\"underline\":true},\"insert\":\"In essence, the sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ) is his way of acting, ordering, accepting, and rejecting, and the way of his rightly guided caliphs who followed his way of acting, ordering, accepting, and rejecting.\"},{\"insert\":\"\\n \\nAs you can see, the sunnah is the prophetic way/methodology, not specific acts. This is also how the companions understood it because there are many sahih hadiths, and I have a book that lists at least seventy sahih hadiths, where the companions did something that had not been specifically done by the Prophet (ﷺ) because they understood that this act was in accordance with his way (ﷺ). I will mention a couple:\\n\\n\\n\"},{\"attributes\":{\"bold\":true},\"insert\":\"Bukhari and Muslim relate from Abu Hurayra (Allah be well pleased with him) that at the dawn prayer the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to Bilal, “Bilal, tell me which of your acts in Islam you are most hopeful about, for I have heard the footfall of your sandals in paradise”, and he replied, “I have done nothing I am more hopeful about than the fact that I do not perform ablution at any time of the night or day without praying with that ablution whatever has been destined for me to pray.” \"},{\"insert\":\"Ibn Hajar Asqalani says in Fath al-Bari that the hadith shows it is permissible to use personal reasoning (ijtihad) in choosing times for acts of worship, for Bilal reached the conclusions he mentioned by his own inference, and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) confirmed him therein. Similar to this is the hadith in Bukhari about Khubayb (who asked to pray two rakas before being executed by idolaters in Mecca) who was the first to establish the sunnah of two rak’as for those who are steadfast in going to their death. These hadiths are explicit evidence that Bilal and Khubayb used their own personal reasoning (ijtihad) in choosing the times of acts of worship, without any previous command or precedent from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) other than the general demand to perform the prayer.\"},{\"attributes\":{\"list\":\"ordered\"},\"insert\":\"\\n\"},{\"attributes\":{\"bold\":true},\"insert\":\"Bukhari and Muslim relate that Rifa’a ibn Rafi said, “When we were praying behind the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and he raised his head from bowing and said, “Allah hears whoever praises Him”, a man behind him said, “Our Lord, Yours is the praise, abundantly, wholesomely, and blessedly therein.” When he rose to leave, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) asked “who said it”, and when the man replied that it was he, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “I saw thirty-odd angels each striving to be the one to write it.” \"},{\"insert\":\"Ibn Hajar says in Fath al-Bari that the hadith indicates the permissibility of initiating new expressions of dhikr in the prayer other than the ones related through hadith texts, as long as they do not contradict those conveyed by the hadith [since the above words were a mere enhancement and addendum to the known, sunnah dhikr].\"},{\"attributes\":{\"list\":\"ordered\"},\"insert\":\"\\n\"}]}","tags":[{"_id":"668d9ff70b76658b4c232a80","tag":"Seerah: Sunnah and Hadith","count":68},{"_id":"668d9fea0b76658b4c232905","tag":"Aqeedah: Muhammad ﷺ","count":20}],"createdOn":"2024-07-09T20:40:24.985Z"}